Portal:Disney

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Introduction

The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923 as an animation studio, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Oliver Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; it later operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before adopting its current name in 1986. In 1928, Disney established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse, who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.

After becoming a major success by the early 1940s, Disney diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. However, following Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation sector, began to decline. In 1984, Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as CEO, who led a reversal of the company's decline through a combination of international theme park expansion and the highly successful Disney Renaissance period of animation from 1989 to 1999. In 2005, under the new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment conglomerate with the acquisitions of Pixar in 2006, Marvel Entertainment in 2009, Lucasfilm in 2012, and 21st Century Fox in 2019. In 2020, Bob Chapek became the head of Disney after Iger's retirement. However, Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.

The company is known for its film studio division, the Walt Disney Studios, which includes Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation, and Searchlight Pictures. Disney's other main business units include divisions in television, broadcasting, streaming media, theme park resorts, consumer products, publishing, and international operations. Through these divisions, Disney owns and operates the ABC television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic; publishing, merchandising, music, and theater divisions; direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar; and Disney Experiences, which includes several theme parks, resort hotels, and cruise lines around the world. (Full article...)

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American film produced by Amblin Entertainment and The Walt Disney Company (released on its Touchstone Pictures banner), which blends traditional animation and live action. The film takes place in a fictionalized version of Los Angeles set in 1947, where animated characters (always referred to as "Toons") are real beings who live and work alongside humans in the real world, most of them as actors in animated cartoons.

At $70 million, Roger Rabbit was one of the most expensive films to date at the time of its release. The film proved a sound investment, earning over $150 million during its original theatrical release. The film is notable for offering a unique chance to see many cartoon characters from different studios interacting in a single film and for being one of the last appearances by voice artists Mel Blanc and Mae Questel from animation's Golden Era. In addition, Who Framed Roger Rabbit won four Oscars at the 61st Academy Awards ceremony in 1989.

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Credit: Coolcaesar

An entrance to Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California

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These are images of Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, The Walt Disney Company, and Walt Disney in their respective articles.

Image 1One of Disney's first animated characters Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Disney regained the rights to in 2006. The initial run of Oswald shorts by Disney have all entered the public domain as of January 1, 2024. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 2Grave of Walt Disney at Forest Lawn, Glendale (from Walt Disney)
Image 3Walt Disney (left) with his brother Roy O. Disney (right) and then Governor of Florida W. Haydon Burns (center) on November 15, 1965, publicly announcing the creation of Disney World (from Walt Disney World)
Image 4Tomorrowland
(Space Mountain in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 5Disney's video streaming subscription service Disney+ was launched in 2019, which has a total of over 135 million subscriptions as of June 2022. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 6Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle (from Disneyland)
Image 7Disney family at Schiphol Airport (1951) (from Walt Disney)
Image 8Disney Magic at Port of Venice (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 9Disney in 1954 with Wernher von Braun (from Walt Disney)
Image 10Hollywood Studios' park icon, the Chinese Theatre (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 11A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6-cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968 (from Walt Disney)
Image 12Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland in 2008. (from Disneyland)
Image 13An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004 (from Disneyland)
Image 14The original logo of Walt Disney World from 1971 to the mid-1990s (from Walt Disney World)
Image 15Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida (from Walt Disney World)
Image 16Disney next to a cat and a drawing of Mickey Mouse (by Harris & Ewing), 1931 (from Walt Disney)
Image 17Disney with film roll and Mickey Mouse on his right arm in 1935 (from Walt Disney)
Image 18Overlay of Walt Disney's original 1966 plans for Disney World and the proposed EPCOT city (orange) and contemporary situation (blue) (from Walt Disney World)
Image 19Walt Disney's business envelope featured a self-portrait, c. 1921 (from Walt Disney)
Image 20Jeffrey Katzenberg was chairman of the Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1995. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 21Disney in 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 22The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort.
Image 23The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion. (from Disneyland)
Image 24Disney receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 from President Lyndon B. Johnson. (from Walt Disney)
Image 25Fantasyland
(Peter Pan's Flight in the foreground and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in the background) (from Disneyland)
Image 26Team Disney – The Michael D. Eisner Building, the main building at the Walt Disney Studios, which houses the offices of Disney's CEO and several other senior corporate officials. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 27Adventureland entrance
(2006) (from Disneyland)
Image 28Disney's promotional logo for its centennial. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 29Disney's childhood home (from Walt Disney)
Image 30Excerpt of Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 31Characters from Alice in Wonderland host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist in 2005. (from Disneyland)
Image 32Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
(Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run) (from Disneyland)
Image 33Disney shows the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 34Walt Disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer (from Walt Disney)
Image 35One of four arches welcoming guests to the resort (from Walt Disney World)
Image 36The original animation building at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, which they fully moved into in 1940 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 37Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 38Walt (right) dressed as a gaucho next to Donald Duck in Argentina while on the company's South American goodwill trip in 1941. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 39Disney drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941 (from Walt Disney)
Image 40Bayou Country
(Tiana's Bayou Adventure) (from Disneyland)
Image 41Mickey's Toontown
(Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway) (from Disneyland)
Image 42Walt, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns, and Roy announcing the plans for Disney World in November 1965 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 43Wedding Pavilion at the Seven Seas Lagoon (from Walt Disney World)
Image 44Disneyland Railroad Engine 2 at the New Orleans Square station. (from Disneyland)
Image 45The 2018 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 46Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010 (from Disneyland)
Image 47Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son, was head of the animation department until 2003. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 48Disney (left) with his brother Roy O. Disney (right) and then Governor of Florida W. Haydon Burns (center) on November 15, 1965, publicly announcing the creation of Disney World (from Walt Disney)
Image 49Disney bought The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 50Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954 (from Disneyland)
Image 51Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage (from Disneyland)
Image 52Main Street, USA
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 53Disney security vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
Image 54Map of the resort as of May 2015 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 55Frontierland
(Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in 2008) (from Disneyland)
Image 56A Disney Cruise Line bus which takes guests to and from Terminal 8 from Orlando International Airport; as well as around Walt Disney World. (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 57View of Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
Image 58Michael Eisner replaced Ron Miller as CEO. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 59Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo (from Disneyland)
Image 60The 1996 version of The Walt Disney World logo (from Walt Disney World)
Image 61Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, expanding the company's properties (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 62New Orleans Square
(the Haunted Mansion during the holiday season) (from Disneyland)
Image 63The Sherman Brothers in 2002. They composed many Disney songs in the 1960s. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 64An aerial shot of Walt Disney World in 1982 (from Walt Disney World)

Selected biography

Walter Elias Disney (/ˈdɪzni/; December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards earned and nominations by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Disney was the first person to be nominated for Academy Awards in six different categories, a record he shares with Alfonso Cuaron and George Clooney (although Kenneth Branagh later surpassed all three with nominations in seven categories).

Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing. He took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy. With Ub Iwerks, he developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success; he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years. As the studio grew, he became more adventurous, introducing synchronized sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons and technical developments in cameras. The results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio, Fantasia (both 1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942), furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella (1950) and Mary Poppins (1964), the latter of which received five Academy Awards.

In the 1950s, Disney expanded into the amusement park industry, and in July 1955 he opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California. To fund the project he diversified into television programs, such as Walt Disney's Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club. He was also involved in planning the 1959 Moscow Fair, the 1960 Winter Olympics, and the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1965, he began development of another theme park, Disney World, the heart of which was to be a new type of city, the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT). Disney was a heavy smoker throughout his life and died of lung cancer in December 1966 before either the park or the EPCOT project were completed.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company alleging that the release strategy for Black Widow breached her contract?
... that Disney+ released a promotional poster for the Doctor Who Christmas special "Joy to the World" with the title spelled incorrectly?
... that John Oliver dared Disney to sue him over his version of Mickey Mouse?
... that the ferry General Joe Potter at Walt Disney World is named in honor of Major General William Everett Potter?
... that a revival of the comedy series Lizzie McGuire was ordered in 2019, but canceled mid-production after Disney deemed it not family-friendly enough?

Selected quote

Why, oh why couldn't that woman have a fetish for rutabagas, or something?

— Scrooge McDuck

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...that Dan Povenmire was at a Wild Thyme restaurant in South Pasadena, California, when he first drew the character Phineas Flynn?

...that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects?

...that The Nightmare Before Christmas was originally released by Touchstone Pictures, a label owned by the Walt Disney Company, because it was considered inappropriate to use the Walt Disney Pictures banner due to the darker content displayed in this film.
...that The Reedy Creek Improvement District in Florida is the immediate governing jurisdiction for the land on the Walt Disney World Resort.
...that when Walt Disney was looking for a new character following Oswald, he rejected a female cow and male horse who later turn up as Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar?

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